A Canadian science wiz has won a top prize in the 2013 Google Science Fair, a global online competition highlighting young inventors and scientists.

Ann Makosinski, a 15-year-old from Victoria, B.C., is one of four winners at this year’s event. She came out on top in the 15-16 age group for her battery-free flashlight, which relies on the heat from a person’s hands to power the LED lights.

Makosinski’s hollow flashlight, made from an aluminum tube, relies on the thermoelectric effect: the difference in temperature between the inside and outside of the flashlight can be harnessed to produce voltage that can power a device. Similar ideas have been worked into clothing and sleeping bags to charge phones at tablets at music festivals.

Makosinski’s invention was chosen from thousands of projects submitted by students in more than 120 countries.

The grand prize winner was 17-year-old Eric Chen, whose project “the taming of the flu” used computer modelling to identify influenza inhibitors that could be used for future antiviral medicine.

Prizes for winners and finalists include educational trips, scholarships and hands-on experiences at such places as CERN, LEGO and, of course, Google.